Prepared roofing



Oct. 16, 1934. T. B. LEHON PREPARED ROOFING Filed Sept. 29, 1950 E lG/YAZWL Patented a. 16, 1934 1,9763

UNITED STATES PAT N FFICV 1,976,948 PREPARED ROOFING Thomas B. Lehon, Chicago, Ill., assignor to The Lchon Company, a corporation of Illinois Application September 29, r930, Serial No. 485,041 2 Claims. 201. 91-68) This invention relates to prepared roofing. may be expected from the coatings which the The objects of the present invention are to profelt may be made to support. duce a roofing which has materially increased I am aware of various processes which have life over roofings which are now common, and attempted to indent or deform the sheet after to use therein no greater weight of felt; to proit has been impregnated with a weatherproofing 6o duce roofings which have a life equalling that compound and before the wearing surface or now usually attained but in which the weight of coating of asphalt has been applied. I know felt is materially reduced; and to produce a felt also of certain other processes in which the felt which has, for the purposes of coating, an aphas been indented before saturation. General- 10 parent thickness greatly in excess of the true 1y, this operation has been accomplished by 5 thickness of the felt. passing the sheet between corrugated, roughened It is also an object of the invention to proor studded rollers.

.duce roofing which has a much better appear- In the first case, that is when the sheet is anc'e than ordinary sheet roofings, for the greatdeformed after saturation, the result inevitably 13? increased thickness of the roofing made in acis that the sheet is changed in dimension after cordance with this invention lends itself parit passes the rollers. Usually, it is both narticularly to the simulation of shingles or tiles. rowed and shortened. Besides the unpredictable These and other objects and advantages will changes in dimension which this operationbecome apparent as thedisclospre proceeds and causes, it is open to the further serious objecthe description is read in conjunction with th tion that as the sheet passes between the corruaccompanying drawing, in which gations or under the studs; the felt, instead of Fig. 1 Ba perspective view of a section of the being maintained at a uniform thickness, is comfelt; pressed. It is also bent around sharp, corners.

Fig. 2 is a. perspective view of a, small section The compression of the felt affects to a material 25 of the completed roofing; and degree the bonding of the asphalt coat to the 30 1 Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic indication of the S pp a the d a the felt has been method of manufacture of prepared roofing from sharply distorted or bent hurts its mechanical my improved felt. strength.

1 Prepared roofings consist of a layer of soft In the second instance, that is, when the 3o absorbent felt which must be impregnated with felt has been indented before the saturation of some water proofing compound in order to prethe sheet, a felt is formed'which has small vent the rotting or disintegration of. the felt. area which rehighly ompressed andother .The saturated felt is then coated with a hard, areas which are either not compressed at all or high melting asphaltic material and the coatcompr ss d ut s htly- Practical]: speaking,

. ing itself is protected by being covered with it is exceedingly difficult and almost impossible granules of ground rock or sand. Actually, to run either felt through a saturator and have therefore the surface which protects the roof thedeg'ree 0f p on uniform thr ughout from th w ath r and shed th ain i a the extent of the sheet. Generally, it will be phalt surface, and the thicker the surface the found that the soft uncompressed areas pick up longer th roof will last, The felt itself h the saturant, readily, but that the material has practically no protective powers; as i well not entered into the compressed felt in themknown, when the coating is gone, the roofing has dented D It p y Coats them. The proreached the end of its useful lif 0888 ls w k the felt, ince it is sharply Broadly speaking, the function of the felt i bent and distorted after the felt is formed. onlyto provide a vehicle or a carrier for the F l w i h pi v l plane may be asphaltic surface which protects the roof from f med on a felt maohmem y be done by i the weather. Were it possible to apply a sheet P n up h l n a V ry rough or pecu-- of pure asphalt to a roof and make it stay there liarly ormed belt or foraminous carrier, or the th wf lt wo ld be entirely unnecessary, felt may be passed between corrugated or stud- Since the high grade felts that are necessary ded rollers before much of the water has been 195 50 are by far the most expensive item enteringinto expressed. If this is done, a felt is produced sheet roofing, the design of satisfactory roofing which has throughout its whole extent substanmust include a compromise between the thicktially the same density, and for the purpose of ness of felt which is permissible in roofing from making roofing has an apparent usable thickthe point of view of its. cost and the life which ness several times in excess of its true thickness.

- A- material known to the trade as" bottle wrapper paper is manufactured in much the same way? It gains its name because its resilient and cushioning nature prevents glassware from being broken. I have found that under certain circumstances, it may be used as a satisfactory felt and that the impregnation of the saturant is uniform.

Such a felt is illustrated in perspective in Fig. 1. In the manufacture of roofing from such a felt, the felt is unrolled, passed through a saturator' where the impregnation of the felt takes place passes over chilling rolls and then to the coater where a layer of asphalt or other wear resisting coating is applied. If the rollers are properly adjusted, the coating will not only coat both sides of the felt, but will fill up the depressions and corrugations between the ridges. Consequently, a felt formed as shown in Fig. 1 has the power to pick up a coating of asphalt which weighs much more than that which could be picked up by a plain sheet of felt weighing the same amount per sq. 'yd. his free from the objections noted in the discussions of the other processes since the felt maintains throughout its whole extent substantially the same density and, therefore, it is evenly'and uniformly saturated. Also, since the felt is distorted while in a softand semi-watery stage, there is no breaking of the fibres and no impairment of its normal mechanical strength.

With particular reference to the figures, it will benoticed that the felt, generally indicated by 10, in Fig. 1, is distorted both above and below its normal plane 11 to form protuberances 12 extending above the plane and similar protuberances 13 extending below the plane 11.. It is, of

course, appreciated that the scale in Figs. 1

and 2 is greatly exaggerated so that the configuration of the felt may be set forth. However, in actual practice, the protuberances 12 and 13 at least equal the normal thickness of the felt itself and I prefer to use a felt having the following characteristics: thickness about .026 of an inch; height of protruding areas 112, Fig. 1)

about a; of an inch; depth of the depressed areas (13, Fig. 1) 5; of an inch. The projections occur about every of an inch center to center. The apparent, but usable thickness for asphalt holding purposes is, therefore, .0885 inch (with considerable tolerance). These dimen-,

sions are cited'by way ,of example only. All

spread by the roll 19 while the upper coating 18 is received through the spout 21 and is spread over the sheet by the roll 22. The hot felt now passes through a mineral coater which coats the underside of the roofing with ground or powdered talc, fine. sand, or the like from the supply 23 and also applies the weather resisting coating 24 of crushed slate, colored granules or the like from the supply hopper 25. The roofing then passes between the chilled feed rolls 26 and 27, and through loopers to cool the roofing in amanner which is well understood.

The undercoating of asphalt 17, the layer of sand or talc 23, the upper coating of asphalt 18, and the layer of crushed slate or colored granules 24 are shown in their proper positions in relation to the felt 10 in Fig. 2. v

A considerable amount of the prepared roofing used in the trade is built up'from a felt base weighing 50 lbs. per 480 sq. ft., the thickness of which varies from .050 to .052of an inch. To produce roofing of the same grade, using the present invention, it is possible to use a sheet weighing but twenty-six lbs. to 480 sq. ft. but having an apparent thickness of .050 to .052 of an inch. To produce a roofing twice as thick as the standard roofing above referred to, a felt weighing fifty lbs. to 480 sq. ft. and having an apparent thickness of .104 is satisfactory.

It is thus evident that" the practice of my invention results in a considerable economy in felt, a materially longer lived roofing, or a. material much better suited to simulate shingles or tiles.

What I claim, therefore, is:

1. Prepared roofing material comprising a posite side, without impairing the strength, density, or uniform thickness of the felt, to give the sheet an effective thickness greater than the actual thickness thereof and a layer of water proofing material on said sheet embedding said u projections.

2. Prepared sheet of felt impregnated with'an asphaltic composition, said sheet being bodily distorted without the strength, density or uniform thickness of the felt to form a multiplicity of projections and depressions on both sides of the sheet to give the sheet an effective thickness greater than the actual thickness of the felt, and a layer of asphaltic composition covering said projections and filling said depressions on each side of the sheet.

'THOMAS E. LEHON;

roofing material comprising a 

